This post was updated Feb. 4 at 9:14 p.m.

Through poetry, Ariv Gupta shows how being your true self is the key to connection.

The third-year computer science student independently published his first book, “what’s real: poetry for everyone,” on Oct. 7. Inspired by everyday life, the undergraduate student said this collection was born from a desire to record each day of an academic quarter in hopes of being able to reflect on his emotions and experiences. With a variety of themes ranging from friendship to loss, the work is a reflection of general life with a timeless nature, which Gupta hopes will allow everyone to connect with the poetry, no matter their stage in life.

“This whole life is very individual as much as it is collective,” Gupta said. “Those individual feelings that arise out of this collective experience are worth touching on. There are so many themes that we all can relate to, and my hope was to tackle some of those with the book.”

Gupta said he started writing poetry during his sophomore year at UCLA when trying to find a freer form of expression. Having previously experimented with journaling, online blogs and podcasts as self-reflection tools, Gupta said he started to feel somewhat restricted with regular writing, as it has a stronger presence of grammatical rules and structure. Because of this, he said he decided to finally explore his interest in poetry, challenging himself to write a poem every day of fall quarter during his second year, which he said eventually turned into his latest book when he realized he had enough material for a collection.

Although writing is not a foreign field to the author, Gupta said he used to have a difficult relationship with it, as he was constantly trying to live up to his previous work. However, he added how, with poetry, he has learned writing is a spontaneous experience, often lacking logic. This is why he now tries to ignore his judgmental instinct while in the process, often being able to realize the true meaning of his words once he has finished, he said.

On his writing style, Gupta’s friend and mentor, Galen Hamilton, praised the student for his ability to connect with people through his work. Hamilton said Gupta has the power to captivate people through his writing, adding that the ability to communicate through writing does not happen just by putting words together, but that it takes skill to attract and relate with an audience – a skill he said Gupta possesses.

“It’s (Gupta’s writing) captivating, and I think it speaks to a message, if you will, that is enlightened,” Hamilton said. “Many people would enjoy hearing it because it’s put out so eloquently, … very captivating, very descriptive.”

As someone who is not a poetry reader, Gupta said his writing style comes across as rhythmic, often inspired by other interests of his, like rap music. He said he enjoys experimenting with many forms of artistic expression, such as music and film, normally rotating between them, which is why he believes his poetry is influenced by these other interests. Gupta even went on to describe his major at UCLA as a different approach to understanding the world beyond the English language, considering it one of his many creative outlets.

The themes he decides to showcase through these creative outlets tend to echo a lot of his personal stance in life, he said. Gupta described himself as both an 8- and 80-year-old, as he said his poetry often reflects a level of gratefulness for being alive that is more commonly seen in older people. On the other hand, he said he sees his poetry from a lighthearted perspective that comes from his active intention of keeping his imagination alive.

Gupta’s friend, Ayushi Srivastava, said his writing is very genuine and unfiltered, emphasizing that although focusing on everyday occurrences, it’s still able to be as immersive as other genres like fiction. Srivastava said Gupta’s work resembles an improvised music session in the way he is able to create a unique style with day-to-day elements.

“His writing is as if you were sitting on GarageBand on a Sunday afternoon trying to come up with something new,” she said. “It’s very experimental. … (He) can take everyday sounds and put them together and create something beautiful that doesn’t already exist, but also appeal to a lot of different people just because it’s everyday sounds.”

Much like this experimental essence, Gupta said his decision to self-publish the poetry book came from the curiosity of wanting to see the publishing process from beginning to end, as well as testing whether he was capable of doing so. Yet, he said he wouldn’t describe this project as individual since he received a lot of feedback from friends and family. Nonetheless, Gupta said this doesn’t undermine the gratification of being able to complete the project and holding a physical result: his book. This independent route, he said, also helped maintain the genuineness of the piece, allowing him to follow his intuition without a third party forcing a target audience onto him.

Gupta said he mainly decided to embark on this project for himself, often seeing talented friends finding it difficult to appreciate their own talent. This, he said, motivated him to explore one of his passions in a judgment-free zone, while also encouraging other people to do the same.

“I truly believe every single person in this world has a book inside of them. It might not be an actual book, but it’s a proverbial book inside of them,” Gupta said. “They just need the container or the space or the nurturing to allow themselves to pen it down. I hope that my book can serve as a beginning.”